<p class="bodytext">This tiffin has been prepared with the best of ingredients but the cooking, alas, leaves you unsated.</p>.<p class="bodytext">'Dabba Cartel' on Netflix is headlined by the terrific Shabana Azmi who reminds you of her uber-cool don avatar in 'Godmother' (1999). She lays low for the first two episodes and then looms over the shady business and the series both. Although their work is highly questionable, this is a tale of women who feel slighted, ignored, and who desperately want to win in life. That's the good part. The men in the series are mostly ambitious and egotistic husbands and lovers or plain bungling gangsters. </p>.<p class="bodytext">If you haven't guessed already, a dabbawali's home business morphs into an increasingly dangerous drug supply operation. In comes big pharma, big drugs, the now-predictable cat-and-mouse games and even a curiously lukewarm lesbian coupling. A whole host of entertaining characters walk in and out including a government officer (Gajraj Rao) who hides a sharp brain behind his benign face, the debonair Shankar (Jisshu Sengupta) who is the evil head of the villainous pharma, the society aunty played superbly by Sushmita Mukherjee, the SoBo dealer (Lillette Dubey) and the mysterious gangsta Chacko (Sunil Grover).</p>.<p class="bodytext">It is all very busy, trippy even, and chaotic; not a bad thing for a crime-comedy caper but unfortunately nothing comes together despite such a great cast. The script is lazy and meandering and goes around in circles. Also, pet peeve: Will any sane newspaper really call itself 'The Front Page'? Err...think not. </p>
<p class="bodytext">This tiffin has been prepared with the best of ingredients but the cooking, alas, leaves you unsated.</p>.<p class="bodytext">'Dabba Cartel' on Netflix is headlined by the terrific Shabana Azmi who reminds you of her uber-cool don avatar in 'Godmother' (1999). She lays low for the first two episodes and then looms over the shady business and the series both. Although their work is highly questionable, this is a tale of women who feel slighted, ignored, and who desperately want to win in life. That's the good part. The men in the series are mostly ambitious and egotistic husbands and lovers or plain bungling gangsters. </p>.<p class="bodytext">If you haven't guessed already, a dabbawali's home business morphs into an increasingly dangerous drug supply operation. In comes big pharma, big drugs, the now-predictable cat-and-mouse games and even a curiously lukewarm lesbian coupling. A whole host of entertaining characters walk in and out including a government officer (Gajraj Rao) who hides a sharp brain behind his benign face, the debonair Shankar (Jisshu Sengupta) who is the evil head of the villainous pharma, the society aunty played superbly by Sushmita Mukherjee, the SoBo dealer (Lillette Dubey) and the mysterious gangsta Chacko (Sunil Grover).</p>.<p class="bodytext">It is all very busy, trippy even, and chaotic; not a bad thing for a crime-comedy caper but unfortunately nothing comes together despite such a great cast. The script is lazy and meandering and goes around in circles. Also, pet peeve: Will any sane newspaper really call itself 'The Front Page'? Err...think not. </p>